Saturday, January 19, 2013

At last!

To placate my hands (this week has been a bust), I made mini plaited paper baskets. They're on top of a piece I did a week or two ago with Morgan hanji and Melissa paper, both using kozo. The scraps from both baskets are inside the left one.
Hisako's book has been a revelation. From page one, it was like meeting a kindred spirit, only she had done all the hard work to make things easier for all of us. This is the kind of book that I could imagine, but would never make myself, because it's VERY hard. Why the star?
LOOK!!! I must have known there was a reason that I never ever made these diagrams myself for cording paper. Why reinvent the wheel? Her instructions, though, make me want to go back to the drawing board to see if I have been separating steps all along. But what I absolutely love are these dotted lines, so you can imagine how the strands feel between your hands. Even when I teach, I mention x-ray vision, the V in between that we can't see, and wish that all of our right hands were transparent. VERY happy to have found this before this year's teaching season. Thank you, Velma!!

5 comments:

mjc said...

Oh, mine wasn't hanji, it was just wonky kozo (b/c of the screen I am using). This post made me buy that book, though! Thanks.

aimee said...

sorry, i meant to say something closer to hanji-ish! thanks for the correction. it was still fun, wonkiness and all (and the rest of that piece is in a teaching sample book).

onesmallstitch said...

thank you Aimee, thank you Velma, I've ordered the book. lovely little baskets, I'd love to watch your fingers at work.

Velma Bolyard said...

this book is perfect, from someone who read and used a lot of basketry books once upon a time. and jean, she has magic fingers. but so do you AND melissa!

ronnie said...

these are just adorable.... and diagrams with hands make my fingers itch with desire... I keep telling myself *one day* I'll get the chance to try all this deliciousness